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Add an asset class


Dan Munns

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Hi all,

Is there a way to add an asset class? 

I need to add a list of asset types that we will use for creating new assets for disposal and wanted to add a new class called 'Disposal' and then add the asset types to this.

I cant seem to find a simple list that holds the info though. 

Any ideas? 

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@Dan Munns

There is no way of adding a class of asset yourself, the reason being there is a physical database schema under each asset class, if we allowed you to change the schema there is no way we could handle upgrades to things we provide.  If you need a new asset class then please propose it and we can introduce it for you.  If you can breakdown what you are looking for then we can get that sorted pretty quickly I would expect.  

There is a "General" asset class, does that not cover what you need?

Gerry


 

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@Gerry General will do at a pinch I suppose. 

Basically I have a list of allowed product categories (attached) from our disposal supplier.

Some of these are already covered but others would be better placed in separate classes. 

Batteries and storage media for 2 I can think of of the top of my head. 

These are serialised items for us. I was going to use general for the other generic things on the list. (Mixed WEEE etc) 

Ideally I would have had a disposal list so the Service Desk only had one place to go. 


 

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@Dan Munns

Ok thanks for the list.  Conceptually, a class is meant to be generic.  So for example, both Flat Panel Monitors and CRT Monitors and Projectors would all be "types" of class "Display Device", of course it would help if we actually had a Display class in the first place.  So from your list I can see the following addtional classes. 

Display Device
Battery
Storage Device

Things like toner, packaging etc would not naturally fit into an asset or configuration database, so if you wanted to put those in there, then I would suggest the General class for that. 

Make sense?

Gerry
 

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Is there any potential for "Server" to be an individual class as well? We currently use them against the Computer class, but they can be much more than that? Maybe i'm just overthinking things...

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@Dan Munns just a quick question.

The assets which you are moving to disposal would they have existed as another Asset Type under an Existing Asset Class?

I only ask as we can certainly look to add new Asset Classes and attributes to existing Asset Classes (we try to do this quarterly, so we will add your requirements) but would disposal not be an Asset State alongside disposal info?  

You can define and use your own asset sub-statuses (Manage Asset Types > Manage Asset Substates)

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Then you could move assets into an archived - Disposed Status which you can both report on and view in All Assets list view - Sub Status column

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I only ask as you can't change an assets class / type once created so just wondered if you were ending up with duplicates by retiring the original and then creating another under a disposed grouping?

You can also record more disposal info here: 

image.png 

You could add Toner under the Printer Class - create a Type Called Toner and then use the following optional attributes from the printer class:

image.png

Sorry if i have misunderstood the Disposal aspect?

The additional Asset classes and adding existing attributes we can certainly look at

Steve

 

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@samwoo

I can see how you would come to that conclusion but the class definition of "Computer" really is the top-level.  Our general rule for defining a class is to try not to duplicate, a server is just a specific "type of" computer, thats how we think of it.  I would be interested to hear your views though, what would be your justification? (in the context of the structure of a CMDB, as opposed to your personal preference)?

 

Gerry

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7 minutes ago, Gerry said:

@samwoo

I can see how you would come to that conclusion but the class definition of "Computer" really is the top-level.  Our general rule for defining a class is to try not to duplicate, a server is just a specific "type of" computer, thats how we think of it.  I would be interested to hear your views though, what would be your justification? (in the context of the structure of a CMDB, as opposed to your personal preference)?

 

Gerry

Well for instance we would need information for the following fields (some fields are already a part of Hornbill):

- Description
- Manufacturer
- Type (On-premise Server, Cloud Server, Switch, Router etc. - These would be Asset Types under the Server Class)
- Serial Number
- Asset Tag
- Physical Location
- Room
- Rack / Cage number
- Host Name (wdc-tsmon01)
- Private IP Address
- Public IP Address
- Public URL (If any)
- Proxy Server
- Server Type (in-house, cloud)
- Monitored? (Yes, No)
- Monitoring Software
- Company / Owner
- Contact Information
- Operating System
- Server Environment (Live, Test, Development, Production etc)

There are possibly more that can be added though...

The reason why I mentioned it really is so that we can drill down into different server types, under the "Server" class to keep everything more contained.

But as I say I am probably going overkill with this idea, especially if these can possibly fit under the "Computer" class anyway, maybe have a new region in the Computer Class Asset Details, with a title appropriate for Server related information only which we can hide for the other Asset Types.

Thanks,

Samuel

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Hi Samuel,

I would recommend creating a Type using the Computer Class called Server.  We can look at the additional fields that you would like to use and have these added to the computer class. Once these are available you can then enable the for the Server Type. 

Regards,

James

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@Steven Boardman sorry for the confusion, the asset class of Disposal was just there to be a group of asset types that service desk could create for our disposal process. 

At the moment we have to add all items to an excel document to upload to our disposal companys portal. 

What we want is assets already imported into Service Manager can be added via a PC (which is what me other post is about, where the report is not working) and the service desk manually create the other items and add them to the request. 

Then when they run the report it will output in the correct format for the 3rd party portal to be uploaded. 

To be honest there will still be a bit of work to do when the report is working again as I am going to have issues with serial numbers coming from different tables and therefore creating numerous columns called 'Serial Number' which the 3rd party portal wont accept. 

As it is I have created the required items under either General other existing classes so the report is now the only thing holding me up 

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  • 7 months later...
On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 5:22 PM, Gerry said:

Ok I will feed that back, there is no reason not to expand it to include the sorts of things you mention above that are not already covered.  

 

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 5:44 PM, James Ainsworth said:

I would recommend creating a Type using the Computer Class called Server.  We can look at the additional fields that you would like to use and have these added to the computer class. Once these are available you can then enable the for the Server Type. 

Bumping this back to life: I was wondering if there has been any updates regarding the additional fields for the Computer Assets?

 

To add to @Dan Munns idea from the last post, if we can generate a report from within a Request (say a list of Assets) that would be amazing and a good step forward.

Furthering this to extend BPM functionality in being able to update ALL linked Assets to State "Archived", Sub-Status "Disposed" or "To be Disposed of" knowing that since the Assets were added manually as part of the process and that we can produce a report from within the request.

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Hi @samwoo

We do still have a planned change for adding a number of additional fields for a variety of asset classes.  

On 10/31/2018 at 4:42 AM, samwoo said:

generate a report from within a Request

It might be best to start a new topic for this.  It becomes difficult to track when we have different request under the same topic.

Regards,

James

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